(Aw, man, Grasshopper, why wasn't Grasshopper on the album?)
― They have fangs, They have teeth! (White Chocolate Cheesecake), Friday, 18 May 2012 19:11 (1 year ago) Permalink
haha this is actually pretty great. If you want to know what 1991 looked like, check out a couple of the guys dancing down the front here
― Ismael Klata, Friday, 18 May 2012 19:25 (1 year ago) Permalink
and I thought of a possible oblique descendant of this album - Air's Moon Safari
― Ismael Klata, Friday, 18 May 2012 19:29 (1 year ago) Permalink
I've always loved OX4, and I like 'Not Fazed' just fine but it's 'LTAB'. Astounding track. Was always more of a 'Nowhere' fan tho.
― pandemic, Friday, 18 May 2012 19:30 (1 year ago) Permalink
I said it on the other thread, I'll say it here. Today Forever was their absolute best.
I have visited Sennen (with another ILX0r, no less!) on account of the Today Forever EP!
― They have fangs, They have teeth! (White Chocolate Cheesecake), Friday, 18 May 2012 19:31 (1 year ago) Permalink
OTM 'Sennen' is such an amazing track. Is 'Today Forever' the EP that had a shark on the front cover?
― pandemic, Friday, 18 May 2012 19:33 (1 year ago) Permalink
YES! It is amazingness.
(Is the sound really out of synch on the LTAB video or is Mark Gardener really dancing that jerkily and out of time?)
― They have fangs, They have teeth! (White Chocolate Cheesecake), Friday, 18 May 2012 19:34 (1 year ago) Permalink
Yes. Unfamiliar blew me away so hard I could never hear the other three tracks.
― Ismael Klata, Friday, 18 May 2012 19:35 (1 year ago) Permalink
Heh, just dug it out to have a look at it. I don't have a record player anymore so that's all I can do with it atm :(
― pandemic, Friday, 18 May 2012 19:37 (1 year ago) Permalink
OMG, but that EP just builds and builds so that by the time I get to Today I'm just a gibbering wreck on the floor. "Wake up to the sun, what's done is done."
I don't even know how many million times I watched the video EP that went with the songs.
Mmmm, floppy Oxford art school boys rolling around in the sand. Do we not like that?
― They have fangs, They have teeth! (White Chocolate Cheesecake), Friday, 18 May 2012 19:39 (1 year ago) Permalink
I had the cassingle. iirc it was the fruits of my first time in London.
― Ismael Klata, Friday, 18 May 2012 19:39 (1 year ago) Permalink
Very un-rock n roll but I always found it quite sweet that every gig of theirs I went to ended with Mark saying "thanks for coming and have a safe journey home" before playing the last song.
― pandemic, Friday, 18 May 2012 19:42 (1 year ago) Permalink
I think I will ultimately have to go for 'Leave Them All Behind' on this one, but agree that Today Forever EP is the best.
― emil.y, Friday, 18 May 2012 19:42 (1 year ago) Permalink
Mark is like the nicest and sweetest human being who has ever lived, so it's just so in character with his soft loveable cuddly personality that it doesn't matter if it's rock'n'roll or not.
Sorry, I'm going to turn into a gushing fangirl for a minute, but he's one of those people that you would just expect, with everything he's done, and how good looking he is, that he would be kinda arrogant. But he is just one of the actual most sweetest and loveliest and most humble and genuine human beings I've ever met, fullstop. Which is actually far better thing to be than rock'n'roll, I think.
But anyway.
― They have fangs, They have teeth! (White Chocolate Cheesecake), Friday, 18 May 2012 19:46 (1 year ago) Permalink
G_d watching some of these videos is bringing back memories of wishing I could trade my afro in for floppy hair like Mark G. and Bobby Briggs from Twin Peaks.
― pandemic, Friday, 18 May 2012 19:46 (1 year ago) Permalink
Oh god, this video is just so perfectly "Sennen in the wintertime" argh OMG no wonder I love the place so much, I was preprogrammed to by this video.
― They have fangs, They have teeth! (White Chocolate Cheesecake), Friday, 18 May 2012 19:49 (1 year ago) Permalink
I had hair so floppy I couldn't do anything with it. It wasn't a good look. Nbs had the full Mark Gardener iirc, conspicuously absent in recent wdylls.
― Ismael Klata, Friday, 18 May 2012 19:49 (1 year ago) Permalink
(Actually, watching it again, I don't think the video is actually filmed in Sennen. But it is on a wintry beach.)
Mark Gardener doesn't even have Mark Gardener hair any more so it's OK.
Actually the last time I saw him, he was sitting next to Ed O'Brien and he and Mark Gardener had switched haircuts and it was v v odd.
― They have fangs, They have teeth! (White Chocolate Cheesecake), Friday, 18 May 2012 19:52 (1 year ago) Permalink
Twisterella hands down
― Roger Barfing (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 18 May 2012 19:53 (1 year ago) Permalink
There is only one possibly winner of this. The best track on the album, the best single they ever released, the best song they ever did. Leave Them All Behind.
― Sick Mouthy (Scik Mouthy)
^^
― Respectfully, Tyrese Gibson (Nicole), Friday, 18 May 2012 20:00 (1 year ago) Permalink
― Apartment of Evil (Pillbox), Friday, 18 May 2012 20:14 (1 year ago) Permalink
Probably go for Leave The Mall Behind just ahead of Twisterella. This album was a big pile of disappointment for me when I eventually heard it though, it's not a patch on what came before it.
― Goodbye 20th Centipede (NickB), Friday, 18 May 2012 21:13 (1 year ago) Permalink
What about what came AFTER it?
― www.gbokchoymail.com (admrl), Friday, 18 May 2012 21:27 (1 year ago) Permalink
"There is only one possibly winner of this. The best track on the album, the best single they ever released, the best song they ever did. Leave Them All Behind."
half otm. it's the best on this otehrwise mediocre album, but they released better singles overall
― nostormo, Friday, 18 May 2012 21:29 (1 year ago) Permalink
Ha. About half of what came after stands up I reckon. I like a lot of Carnival of Light, and there's a couple of things around Tarantula are as good as anything they did imo (i.e. Slave and Black Nite Crash).
― Ismael Klata, Friday, 18 May 2012 21:43 (1 year ago) Permalink
Nbs had the full Mark Gardener iirc, conspicuously absent in recent wdylls.Yeah, I got the full on Mark Gardener thing chopped off on the day of the general election in 1992 (I remember seeing The Sun's Kinnock lightbulb thing while waiting in the barber's) as a response to being at the Brixton gig a week or so earlier and feeling like I was a clone of everyone else there.
― Pacific Trash Vortex (Nasty, Brutish & Short), Saturday, 19 May 2012 00:04 (1 year ago) Permalink
This + a waveform of LTAB should be etched into the same material the 2001 Monolith is made out of and sent off on an escape trajectory out of the solar system. "Here is shoegaze's greatest moment"
― Vini Reilly Invasion (Elvis Telecom), Saturday, 19 May 2012 02:19 (1 year ago) Permalink
such a great little pop song, voting for "Twisterella."
― Bee OK, Saturday, 19 May 2012 03:05 (1 year ago) Permalink
leave them all behind, so overrated. 'cool your boots' is always my favorite moment from this record. but yeah if they took off 'not fazed' and 'mouse trap' and put on 'stampede and howard hughes' this would have been amazing.
― keythhtyek, Saturday, 19 May 2012 05:32 (1 year ago) Permalink
― Goodbye 20th Centipede (NickB), Saturday, May 19, 2012 12:13 AM
Awesome typo, an even better title.
Great album, "Leave Them All Behind" is my pick, although "Cool Your Boots" comes close.
― NoTimeBeforeTime, Saturday, 19 May 2012 07:16 (1 year ago) Permalink
leave them all behind, so overrated.
THANK YOU!
Listening to it again, I'm kind of mystified by people's devotion to it. Especially people who should know better. It's clearly going to walk this poll (maybe people just like the first song on an album) but it's not even the best song on this album, let alone of Ride's career. And to call it *the* defining moment of shoegaze?
That turgid, overlong, claggy thing? I don't get it. Ride, at their best, managed to make this enourmous, wide, ~heavy~ sound that still managed to somehow take off and soar up into the sky. LTAB just somehow completely failed to even take off, let alone accomplish its title. I mean, a song like OX4 does do that exact trick, that after that long classic rock organ solo and a bit of riffing and chugging along, at about 2:05, the bass kicks in, the phasers drift off, then when the guitar riff comes in at 2:15, the whole song up another gear, and at that point, you feel the liftoff like the cabin starts to slant and the ground out the window goes diagonal and you realise you're airbourne. It never happens for me in LTAB, it's like watching an overloaded airplane, it struggles to get off the ground, but never does.
I mean, you want defining moments of "shoegaze's greatest moment"?
I'd say things like, the moment in Sweetness and Light when after that long intro frothy ethereal confection of guitars and vocal harmonies, the chugging drums and bass finally kick in.
Or the last verse of Chapterhouse's Pearl where Rachel Slowdive's backing vocals come in, a final layer of icing over the kaleidoscopic swirl.
The bit in My Bloody Valentine's Soon where they set up this loop of a perfect pop song, then the big guitars on the verse suddenly come in and rush all over everything like a car skidding off the road.
The guitar drop on Swervedriver's Rave Down. The froth of electronics and driving bass as Toni Halliday sings "why do you grow inside me?" The hypnotic psychedelic throb and sheets of shimmering plate glass guitar of Pale Saints' Deeper Sleep For Steven. Even the moment where the drums kick in, at the beginning of Vapour Trail
^^^^Like, all of these things. These are shoegaze's greatest moments. And Ride think that they're going to "leave them all behind" with that turgid slab of classic rock? They were pointing the way to the future alright, but to a future of Oasis and Stereophonics and just... no. I've come to actually hate that song.
― They have fangs, They have teeth! (White Chocolate Cheesecake), Saturday, 19 May 2012 07:40 (1 year ago) Permalink
"Leave the mall behind" however, is awes.
― Mark G, Saturday, 19 May 2012 07:46 (1 year ago) Permalink
'Leave Them All Behind', easily. I've always felt that this particular album starts off ludicrously strong, and then merely ends up being just okay.
― The Jupiter 8 (Turrican), Saturday, 19 May 2012 07:59 (1 year ago) Permalink
But man, ILX and it's weird coincidences... first the 'C'mown Kids' poll crops up after I listen to it, and then this poll crops up after I listened to Ride's Live At Reading Festival 1992 set last night.
― The Jupiter 8 (Turrican), Saturday, 19 May 2012 08:02 (1 year ago) Permalink
all chrome waves, all the time
― the girl from spirea x (f. hazel), Saturday, 19 May 2012 08:05 (1 year ago) Permalink
I always forget about Chrome Waves, the intro is one of my favourite things, but then the song shoots off in a different direction.
― They have fangs, They have teeth! (White Chocolate Cheesecake), Saturday, 19 May 2012 08:09 (1 year ago) Permalink
"can't stay/unbearable to go/we've all moved on from here" really got me in high school. think the version from LTAB EP is better though?
― the girl from spirea x (f. hazel), Saturday, 19 May 2012 08:15 (1 year ago) Permalink
Chrome Waves is good, yeah. I was really disappointed by it at the time.
I was reading that this album finally went gold in 2009. I guess that isn't indicative of it being a huge sleeper hit, considering it averages out as under 6,000 sales a year, even discounting that the huge majority were probably in the month after release - but tbh I'm a bit surprised at it still recording any sales, 17 years later.
― Ismael Klata, Saturday, 19 May 2012 08:16 (1 year ago) Permalink
cassettes wear out
― the girl from spirea x (f. hazel), Saturday, 19 May 2012 08:17 (1 year ago) Permalink
"can't stay/unbearable to go/we've all moved on from here" really sums up the whole dilemma of this album, and Ride's career at this point.
Was listening to Swervedriver again this morning, and it just reinforced the differences between the Oxford shoegaze bands and the London shoegaze bands.
Like, all shoegaze is essentially about escape. But for the Oxford bands, it was very much about physical escape, songs about driving, songs about road trips, songs about physically leaving. So much of Ride's early output was great because it was all about getting the fuck out.
(London bands, on the other hand, their dreams of escape tended more towards the drugs, sex, dancing escape routes. Either because they'd already moved to London, so they'd had their physical escape, or because, being native Londoners, car culture just wasn't part of their lives? Dunno.)
Going Blank Again seems to be like the pivotal record for Ride, where they'd made their escape, they'd been round the world, gone off to the States and Japan - and half of it is "OMG, shiny newness, isn't this great?!?!" and the other half is hinting towards this yearning nostalgia and wanting the comforts of everything back home. And sure, this happens to every touring rock band, how they cope with the fact that everything that made them has now disappeared and been replaced with a hundred identical hotel rooms and tour busses. But Ride just disappeared into that cosy nostalgia - not helped by the atmosphere of Britpop really encouraging the worship of the past. And in the process destroyed what was great about them - the whole yearning-to-escape desire for something else, desire for something beyond.
― They have fangs, They have teeth! (White Chocolate Cheesecake), Saturday, 19 May 2012 08:21 (1 year ago) Permalink
perhaps that explains why i always thought their presence at a club in houston in 1991 was odd, while lush somehow made sense.
― the girl from spirea x (f. hazel), Saturday, 19 May 2012 08:24 (1 year ago) Permalink
Syndrome vs the Jericho Tavern, I mean, that's the answer there.
― They have fangs, They have teeth! (White Chocolate Cheesecake), Saturday, 19 May 2012 08:32 (1 year ago) Permalink
Britpop ruined everything. Britpop and Nirvana.
― the girl from spirea x (f. hazel), Saturday, 19 May 2012 08:35 (1 year ago) Permalink
If only Britpop had stayed St Etienne and the Auteurs, it would have been alright.
― They have fangs, They have teeth! (White Chocolate Cheesecake), Saturday, 19 May 2012 08:37 (1 year ago) Permalink
fighting the musicality but not denying the musicality
― the girl from spirea x (f. hazel), Saturday, 19 May 2012 08:42 (1 year ago) Permalink
christ how good was Loz man. easily the best drummer of his generation.
Twisterella.
― piscesx, Saturday, 19 May 2012 08:46 (1 year ago) Permalink
it's been remastered dontcha know http://www.slicingupeyeballs.com/2012/04/20/ride-going-blank-again-reissue/
― piscesx, Saturday, 19 May 2012 09:02 (1 year ago) Permalink
"GBÄ" has a special place in my heart and life.I had been unemployed for most of late 91 and early 92 so had hardly any money for records, so when I got a job my Dad gave me £50 and told me to treat myself to some new music, and "GBA" was one of my purchases (others included "In ribbons", "Secondhand clothes" and some Sarah Records). "GBA" had lot to live up to, I'd followed Ride since the start, saw them live with Slowdive supporting, loved the two EPs from the album... But was disappointed by the album itself. It seemed ordinary. I wanted it to fly, wanted it to explode in my face like "Dreams burn down" and "Vapour trail" had. But no, if was just riffing and singing. All the signs of their turgid future were there. "Time of her time" was my initial favourite but over the years "Cool your boots" is now my choice. It does go somewhere, the rhythmic interplay towards the end always makes me smile. Losing a few songs and adding some songs from the "Twisterella" EP, as someone else has said, would make a better album. And "Leave them all behind" strives to be anthemic but doesn't come close. It goes and carries on and makes no progress towards where it aims for,
Liam Gallagher had "OX4" as his answerphone message music, I read once.
― Rob M Revisited, Saturday, 19 May 2012 09:13 (1 year ago) Permalink
when this is done, a poll RIDE - GOING BLANK AGAIN GIVEN THAT LEAVE THEM ALL BEHIND IS ACTUALLY AMAZING SO WE'RE LEAVING THAT OUT
to find 2nd place ect might be fun. Does ILM do 'pick N' polls?
― Britain's Obtusest Shepherd (Alan), Saturday, 19 May 2012 09:20 (1 year ago) Permalink
in which case, EVEN A STOPPED CLOCK TELLS THE RIGHT TIME TWICE A DAY DAAAANAAAANNAAANANANA…
― Britain's Obtusest Shepherd (Alan), Saturday, 19 May 2012 09:22 (1 year ago) Permalink
There was a very swift decline with Mojave 3. The first album was so great and the second so dull that I got off the bus immediately. Did I miss anything?
not really. i like a lot of the 2nd album but the first is all-time for me.
― ban halen (electricsound), Tuesday, 22 May 2012 05:57 (11 months ago) Permalink
I bought "Ask me tomorrow" at the same time as "Pygmalion" and couldn't believe the difference between them, but with the same spooked atmosphere on both. "Love songs on the radio" ended up opening my first lithotripsy cd (theres a thread about it on here from 2003) and hey I've got more litho next week.... And this time I've got The Telescopes' "Flying" leading the way (well I will be pumped full of morphine and flying myself).
Nobody's mentioned the Telescopes have they? Shame.
― Rob M Revisited, Tuesday, 22 May 2012 06:09 (11 months ago) Permalink
I tend to think of the Telescopes as being to weird and arty (not to mention early) to get lumped in w shoegaze. I tend to file them next to Loop & Spacemen 3 in the "not really gaze" category.)
― They have fangs, They have teeth! (White Chocolate Cheesecake), Tuesday, 22 May 2012 06:19 (11 months ago) Permalink
The media seemed to take against the Telescopes from the start, claiming they were bandwagon jumping on the MBV / Loop style, then signing to Creation and going baggy didn't help. There was progression in their singles but they were too early or too late and fell between too many stools.
― Rob M Revisited, Tuesday, 22 May 2012 07:18 (11 months ago) Permalink
Oh I like them, I just don't think they're shoegaze.
They fall through too many cracks. ;_;
― Narco Martenot (White Chocolate Cheesecake), Tuesday, 22 May 2012 16:01 (11 months ago) Permalink
A true shoegazer can always avoid the cracks.
― Ismael Klata, Tuesday, 22 May 2012 16:14 (11 months ago) Permalink
LTAB isn't a great (or even a good) song in terms of songwriting in a "great even when you play it with an acoustic guitar" way.there's not much happening melodically and it's pretty repetitive.but the arrangements, dynamics and production are fantastic.the intro is one of the most exciting thing ever !
― AlXTC from Paris, Tuesday, 22 May 2012 16:50 (11 months ago) Permalink
Yeah I love the intro-intro (who keybds) and the second intro (guitars kicking in) but then it just loses the momentum I find
― licorice oratorio (baaderonixx), Tuesday, 22 May 2012 18:46 (11 months ago) Permalink
Really enjoyed listening to this again today as the sun returned. Twisterella, Mouse Trap, Cool Your Boots all sounding great but its all about OX4 really. Beautiful.
― kraudive, Tuesday, 22 May 2012 19:21 (11 months ago) Permalink
I've always loved it, but I feel like it's only really now I'm listening to it on headphones that it's really kicking in for me - the last couple of minutes are extraordinary.
― Ismael Klata, Tuesday, 22 May 2012 19:24 (11 months ago) Permalink
I'm talking about Leave Them All Behind there.
― Ismael Klata, Tuesday, 22 May 2012 19:25 (11 months ago) Permalink
Alan Moulder did a good job, it would've been easy for that to just sound like loud static. I didn't know he was married to Toni Halliday!
― Ismael Klata, Tuesday, 22 May 2012 19:29 (11 months ago) Permalink
Making Judy Smile is the only real clunker
― Britain's Obtusest Shepherd (Alan), Tuesday, 22 May 2012 19:44 (11 months ago) Permalink
I wasn't too impressed with Not Fazed tonight after hearing it again for the first time in a few years.
― kraudive, Tuesday, 22 May 2012 20:06 (11 months ago) Permalink
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― System, Wednesday, 30 May 2012 00:01 (11 months ago) Permalink
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― System, Thursday, 31 May 2012 00:01 (11 months ago) Permalink
sad no one voted for Not Fazed - my #2 pick and an underrated track, from the looks of things
― Carnage of PJ Soles (Pillbox), Thursday, 31 May 2012 00:07 (11 months ago) Permalink
Happy birthday admrl!
― Ismael Klata, Thursday, 31 May 2012 06:08 (11 months ago) Permalink
Happy birthday admrl but I'm still disappointed in these results TBH.
― Dixie Narco Martenot (White Chocolate Cheesecake), Thursday, 31 May 2012 06:55 (11 months ago) Permalink
making judy smile is a great pop song, don't understand the dislike as much as i don't understand the love for ltab.
― keythhtyek, Saturday, 2 June 2012 18:00 (11 months ago) Permalink
Zeroes seldomly signify dislike. It's usually "perpetual third favourite".
― Sick Mouthy (Scik Mouthy), Saturday, 2 June 2012 19:30 (11 months ago) Permalink
Come on, it's terrible!
― Ismael Klata, Saturday, 2 June 2012 19:47 (11 months ago) Permalink
^ otm
― Pacific Trash Vortex (Nasty, Brutish & Short), Saturday, 2 June 2012 20:46 (11 months ago) Permalink
Still hoping that one day we get a proper ranking poll system as opposed to a pass/fail one.
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Saturday, 2 June 2012 20:58 (11 months ago) Permalink